Health Care Primer: The Trump Administration Is Slashing Funding For Obamacare Outreach Even Further

Just as Obamacare’s individual market seemed to be stabilizing, the Trump administration announced it was slashing funding even further for groups that help low-income people enroll. The annual budget for the ACA’s navigators was about $63 million when President Trump took office. He cut that roughly in half, and just announced a new round of even more severe cuts, bringing the funding down 70 percent, to just $10 million. Those funds have to be spread across the 34 states that use the federal ACA marketplace. Perhaps more troublingly, the navigators will now be pushed to promote the cheaper, skimpier insurance options recently created by the Trump administration that do not comply with ACA’s protections and regulations, including Association Health Plans and short-term insurance. Such plans are allowed to refuse to cover certain basic medications and services and can charge people more based on their gender, age or health status. Citing budget cuts, Trump’s HHS is also moving this week to take…